Anonymiss is a joke, a recruiting drive, or Anonymous ops. Take your pick. We’ve taken ours. As far as we know the term Anonymiss showed up on 4Chan several years ago. It picked up traction in late 2010 as part of a recruiting gag to attract more women into the group. Now Anonymiss exists as an umbrella for Anonymous ops dedicated to women’s issues in the Middle East and North Africa, although not exclusively to those regions. It also does other things. But about one thing there is no confusion. Anonymiss is not a schism, a division, or an offshoot of Anonymous. It is part and parcel; one and the same. Anonymiss is Anonymous: Full stop. Anyone can be Anonymous. It’s a participatory organism. You can come from any country; be of either gender or sexual orientation; of any faith or lack thereof. All are welcome into the hive.

Buzz.

The only definitive thing that can be said about /b/ is that each and every user is an asshole, and damn proud of it.

— Encyclopaedia Dramatica, on the /b/ topic [redacted]

Anonymous is like a flock of birds. Leaderless. And shitting on everything below.

— Rrose Sélavy

In the olden days 4Chan was Anonymous, and vice versa. Trying to separate the two was like trying to remove a teenage boy’s hand from his penis. Some things are not easily done. 4Chan is a simple concept. It’s an image board broken down into directories. An homage to Japanese wanking more or less. But to truly comprehend the 4Chan-Anonymous nexus one has to visit /b/, otherwise known as the asshole of the Internet. But be warned. /b/ fuses Photoshop with aesthetic dysentery. Never has so much creative mayhem been be-shat into one place in such prodigious quantity in so short a time. And some of it is funny as hell, especially if you can imagine Karla Homolka inviting you back to her place for a threesome. Anonymous emerged out of 4Chan like the wrath of HaShem or Satan or whichever fuck revenge slasher-film you fear the most. Anonymous is a war party.

Anonymous has been around since 2003 as a meme. That’s difficult for some people to get their heads around. Just think of Anonymous as an idea with people attached to manifesting vision into reality, anonymously. Or with as little fame-whoring as possible. A good example is Operation Chanology (Scientology). That op played out online and in meatspace. The perfect

whipsaw. And a marketing windfall for the manufacturers of Guy Fawkes masks. That Scientology is a transparent fraud is even less ridicule-worthy than suggesting that John Travolta is heterosexual. But that’s also part of the fun. Some things are so obvious they only need a helping of contempt to implode. And that’s what Anonymous does. Through direct action, multicasting, and word of mouth. Anonymous aspires to be an agent of change. For the things that everyone whines about but is too lazy to improve upon there’s the status quo. For everything else, there’s Anonymous.

It is my contention that civil disobediences are nothing but the latest form of voluntary association, and that they are thus quite in tune with the oldest traditions of the country.

— Hannah Arendt

There’s plenty of room for everyone. It’s a big Anonyverse.

— Nuclear Whore

Some Anons don’t like Anonymiss. These same Anons have serious debates about whether Korn is heavier than Guns ‘n Roses. The real problem is that our critics listen with their mouths instead of their ears. Before anyone is allowed to explain what Anonymiss does we’re branded a schism, a bitch factory, or an invasion of the tree fort. We are told by twelve year olds what Anonymous is and how it operates and that we should STFU. Sorry, junior. Go play a video game. We’re busy being mature over here. Anonymous is growing and changing. That’s probably the only accurate thing that the press has reported about us. Anonymous is getting bigger. And more international. And with new blood comes new ideas and new ways of doing things. The way that Anonymous operated five years ago or even five months ago is not a clear reflection of how it’s working right now. It’s a new day and Anonymiss ops is part of that evolution.

Anonymiss is ramping up OperationAppleSeed. It’s a consciousness raising effort across social media platforms. OperationAppleSeed will detail the issues that women in the emerging economies have to live with on a day to day basis. Many of these are clear human rights violations and we’re using OperationAppleSeed as a bullhorn. Here’s some perspective. While online censorship and lack of transparency are critical issues, there are others. Women recovering from genital mutilation generally don’t have Internet access top of mind. High levels of illiteracy also complicate things. By raising these issues, and others, those who have no voice will be given a platform to speak. Where women were once held back by shame and social stigmatization they are now encouraged by solidarity across the entire Internet. Anonymiss ops is committed to sharing these stories; to working with regional bloggers; and partnering with local human rights organizations. So to our critics we say this. If not us, who? If not now, when?

Over the coming weeks and months we’ll have more to say about OperationAppleSeed. But for now we’re just announcing how we’re going to run our ops. We’re not asking anyone’s permission. Thank you. Hi.

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About Anonymiss

Anonymiss is an Anonymous operations group. It’s focused on women’s issues in the emerging economies, amongst other things. Anonymiss is partnering with regional NGOs, bloggers, and human rights organizations to leverage resources and get results. Grab a stick, get in the game. Fellas welcome.